Sutton Speech: Balance of Trade Publication Launch

Foreign Secretary Simon Murdoch,
Director-General Murray Sherwin, Ladies and Gentlemen:
Everyone in this room today is very aware that New Zealand
depends on trade for its prosperity. Exports and imports
are equivalent to more than 50% of New Zealand's Gross
Domestic Product and more than 60% of those exports are
primary products, which are potentially vulnerable to
unjustified Sanitary and Phytosanitary barriers in foreign
markets.

At the same time, we also want to ensure our
biosecurity regime protects our indigenous biodiversity
including treasured species, our land-based industries,
our marine environment and the health of New Zealander s
from pest-borne risks.

New Zealand therefore has a
vital interest in ensuring that the rules governing
international trade strike the right balance regarding
those various considerations. As such, fair,
consistent, science-bas ed and transparent rules for
international trade give us and our trading partners great
benefits and stability.

In launching this publication
today I am here to stress that these objectives of
fairness, consistency, scientific-basis and transparency
should be reflected in the way all countries, including New
Zealand, apply sanitary and phytosanitary measures in the
trade of goods around the world.

Simply put, the World
Trade Organization Agreement on the Application of Sanitary
and Phytosanitary Measures means that all WTO members are
required to justify scientifically the SPS measures they
impose and to ensur e that any measures which are necessary,
are the least restrictive to trade.

New Zealand is a major
participant in SPS processes.

Officials from both the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the Ministry of
Agriculture and Forestry regularly represent New
Zealand's interests at the SPS Committee in Geneva. The
Committee provides a forum to discuss SPS issues
between countries and the operation of the SPS Agreement.
Officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and
Forestry, including the New Zealand Food Safety Authority,
also hold key positions in the relevant international
standard-setting organisations recognised by the SPS
agreement (such as the OIE, Codex and IPPC), chairing
international committees, serving on expert panels and
providing high level technical input.

Our scientific and
technical contributions, internationally are key factors in
the influence New Zealand has in such international forums.
For such a small nation, New Zealand has a respected
voice in the internation al SPS arena.

We have already
seen how the SPS Agreement can benefit New Zealand.

Last
week's announcement of the WTO's decision on apples. The WTO
Appellate Body rejected Japan's appeal of an earlier
decision that its quarantine restrictions on apples were
inconsistent with WTO requirements und er the SPS
Agreement. The dispute brought by the United States was
supported by New Zealand through our substantial
submissions to the Panel and Appellate Body which included
key scientific evidence.

The result is great news for
New Zealand's apple growers and has the potential to
result in significant potential economic benefit for New
Zealand and our pipfruit industry. This example show how
the rules -based framework provided by the SPS Agreement
provides a basis for New Zealand to challenge attempts by
others to erect unjustified and discriminatory SPS barriers
against our exports.

But it is also important to note
that while New Zealand benefits from the SPS Agreement, we
too must ensure that our regime is consistent with the
rules. Our trading partners require assurances that our
exports ar e safe just as we demand from other governments
that the goods we import from them pose no danger to the
safety of our food, our productive base, and our native
plants and animals.

In this regard, the SPS Agreement
complements New Zealand's domestic legislation for
maintaining biosecurity and food safety. Our legislation
embodies and promotes the use of science-based risk
assessment that m anages the risks associated with the
international movement of goods and people.

New Zealand
must be able to justify scientifically, just as we expect
of other governments, the measures we impose on imports.
We must continue to do this given that our food and
forestry producers and exporters ge nerate almost
two-thirds of New Zealand's exports of goods and
directly and indirectly employ hundreds of thousands of
New Zealanders. This could be seriously jeopardised if
New Zealand were to move away from a sound,
science-based approach to managing biosecurity risks.

This publication has been written by MFAT and MAF. It
clearly sets out the international rules around
protecting our human, animal and plant populations and
explains why the SPS Agreement is so important to New
Zealand.

I commend "Balance in Trade" to you as a clear
summary of the benefits New Zealand receives from active
participation in the SPS Agreement and the role the
Agreement plays in ensuring fair and consistent rules
for all trading partners.

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